Listen Closely with Jon & Chris

Listen Closely with Jon & Chris

By JonDBMusicMusic Commentary
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Listen Closely with Jon & Chris episodes

  • Forever Changes - Love (1967)

    Led by the pioneering, insightful, and highly volatile singer/songwriter, Arthur Lee, Love were a groundbreaking Los Angeles-based band who were the envy of many of their contemporaries. Recorded during the famous 'Summer of Love,' Forever Changes is a dark and troubled psychedelic rock masterpiece that is about anything and everything in LA in the late-1960s, except peace and love. 

    Listen as Chris and Jon explore and analyze this seminal and significant album (one that is ranked #40 in Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All Time) and discuss the troubled life and times of a songwriter and a band that never came close to achieving the fame that they deserved. 

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    48 min
  • Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits (1985)

    Breakout your favorite red headband, and listen closely as Jon and Chris discuss one of the most popular and successful rock albums of the 1980s. And while the two agree that the album (featuring incredible guitar, vocals and lyrics by the incomparable Mark Knopfler) is a watershed moment of 1980s music, take a listen as Jon and Chris nearly end a friendship that has lasted more than three decades simply because of 'Walk of Life.' 

    35 min
  • Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John (1973)
    Chris celebrates his birthday, and Jon uses the word 'disillusionment' 63 times in thirty minutes. The two also discuss what is widely considered to be Elton John and Bernie Taupin's masterpiece, an album that seems ironically apropos for quarantine life.
    33 min
  • Imperial Bedroom - Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1982)
    Mysterious, angry, boozy, sweeping. These are just a few words to describe this often underrated 1980s masterpiece by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The album finds Costello at the peak of his powers as a singer/songwriter, and the album's production was unlike anything he had done before or since.
    Listen as Chris and Jon analyze this haunting and troubling collection of songs.
    33 min
  • Achtung Baby - U2 (1991)
    Dark, brooding, funky, and sexy. This album reintroduced the world to U2, who returned after a lengthy hiatus with a new sound and a new style. Chris and Jon take a close look at this masterpiece, and discuss its staying power and how- nearly thirty years after its release- it is still as relevant, intense, and bold as ever.
    31 min
  • No Jacket Required - Phil Collins (1985)

    He was everywhere in 1985, as a singer, songwriter, drummer, producer, actor (!). But how well does Phil Collins' wildly successful, seminal 1985 album No Jacket Required hold up 35 years later? Take a listen as I'm joined by my friend and fellow music nostalgia fanatic, Chris Ciarmiello, as we pull apart anything and everything about this synth-heavy, sometimes somber, classic by Phil Collins. 

    31 min
  • Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones (1971)

    Mick, Keith and the boys at their swaggering and sexy best. Not just a landmark Rolling Stone's album, but the benchmark by which all other great rock albums are measured. Doom and gloom lurk at every corner of these finely crafted ten songs, and while the Stones would have a hell of a run in the 1970s (and beyond) it's questionable that they would ever top this masterpiece. 

    26 min

About Listen Closely with Jon & Chris

From the publisher's feed

They first met on the grade school playground in 1984, and quickly bonded over their fondness for contemporary pop music and their realization that they were both wise beyond their years when it came…